Glutton for a Day

The day has been arranged and fixed a month ago. Two ladies had been waiting for this day - 30 Sep. One wanted to be a glutton, knowing that she will be served good quality home made food. The other was excitedly preparing and baking food, hoping that her guest will be happy with her bakes.

Finally, the time has come for "Passionate About Baking" to meet "Kitchen Corner" again. Ever since Grace and I first met in March, we have been keeping in contact. Then we met up again during the first blogger's party in May. We had been postponing our appointment to meet up for quite a while as she was busy shuttling between Singapore and Malaysia. I believe our friendship was able to sustain because both of us take the effort to keep in contact. It takes two to tango. I like her because I feel that she is very sincere and simple person. She has no airs, and is all so willing to share her baking experience. Ok, so I'm the glutton here.

I had been invited to her place for lunch. She specifically told me "...don't bring anything, just bring an empty stomach..." So I obliged. I was secretly hoping to have her "Jamie Oliver's burger" and my wish came true! Well, I didn't request for it for fear that there will be too much preparation for her. I just want to catch up with her on the happenings after our last meeting.

Okay, here was what I was being fed...
The main course were Homemade burger with baked potato and sweet potatoes. Followed by sweet potato curry puff. And ended with a strawberry yogurt ice-cream on chocolate tart.


We also wanted to try making macarons together. And so we did that after our heavy lunch. That was Grace doing all those work while I was "supervising" at one corner. Heehee...


Unfortunately, our macarons didn't turn out well. It's like the blind leading the blind. It's actually my fault. I felt quite bad the macarons didn't turn out to be what we hoped. Even though the macarons didn't have fritty feet, with the addition of Grace's buttercream, it tasted very very good. She filled them with green tea, coffee, blackberry and her homemade peanut butter and blackcurrant jam. All these buttercreams were really really good. Her homemade peanut butter was really rich and thick, yummy!

The best part about our rendezvous was... I get to "take away" too! These were my "take away" treats (in the picture) - Chocolate almond cookies, ang ku kueh, snow skin mooncakes, her attempted macarons, coffee chiffon cake (not in the picture) and her biscotti.


Now, will someone tell me, am I one of the luckiest person (besides Eric, her spouse) or what? Her bakes are all so yummy, and so beautifully presented. And because of the good food I had at her place, I had to eat "simpler" food today! Hahaha...

Well, like I said, it takes two to tango. I knew I'll get good food when I go to her place, so, I just can't go empty handed. I've also shared with her some stuff which I baked over the week. They were - petit fours, chocolate macarons, walnut moontarts and green tea pound cake. And some of my chocolate modelling roses and some fondant cut flowers. I'm just glad she liked them.


Anyway, thanks Grace for hosting me yesterday. I think you won't considered me as a free-loather since I worked (washing the dishes) for my meals! I really enjoyed your company and to taste your wonderful bakes! Thank you, terima kasih and 谢谢.

Roses Decoration Workshop - New Date in Nov

New date has been released for reservations - 8 Nov 09. There are still available vacancy for 18 Oct 09. Sign up now before it's fully booked!
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We all love roses because of its gorgeous beauty, colour and fragrance. Rose is perennial favourite.

Many cake decorators like to use roses to decorate their cakes especially for wedding cakes! It is loved by all ages alike. Now, you can learn to make roses using different types of sugar paste for your cake decoration. Transform a simple cake, into an impressive cake with your modelling roses! The best part is, no complicated tools are used!

Course Details:
Course fee: $65 per person
Date: 18 October 2009, Sunday; or
8 November 2009, Sunday *new date*
Duration: 3 hours, 1300-1600hrs
Venue: Trainer's residence @ Hougang Street 11
Class size: 4-6 persons

Course Programme:
Fully hands-on learning the following:
1. Fondant Roses
2. Royal Icing Rose
3. Modelling Chocolate Roses
Includes demonstration of:
1. Daisy using Royal Icing
2. Fondant flowers using flower cutters

What you'll acquire:
1. Your knowledge of making edible model roses.
2. Your roses, including all the spares that you are left with from the fondant or modelling chocolate paste.
3. Pipping nozzle and piping nail that you used in the workshop.
4. Simple recipes.

Rose tea will be served during the workshop.

Registration and Payment:
Register with Jane @ aloyallyanders@gmail.com by 10 October 2009 for 18 October workshop, and by 1 November 2009 for 8 November workshop. Payment is made via internet transfers to POSB Savings account 017261398. Confirmation will be given once payment is received.

Enquiries:
For further enquiries, please contact Jane @ 9824-4954.

Chocolate Cheesecake


I had almost missed out on this post! Earlier last week, I had actually baked a Chocolate Cheesecake for my colleague. And because I gave it to her much earlier, I had completely forgotten about this chocolate cheesecake. I've asked her much earlier what kind of cake she would like. Her reply to me was "rich chocolate cake or cheesecake". So I thought, might as well have a chocolate cheesecake!


As it was the first time I was using this recipe to bake a chocolate cheesecake, I didn't know how it taste like. So I requested her to leave a tiny piece for me, if possible, for me to try it. This morning, the moment I stepped into the office, she told me, "your cheesecake is vv-ery, vv-ery...nice!" For a moment, I thought she wanted to tell me my cheesecake is not nice. I'm so glad she loved it! She had shared them with her siblings on Sunday. I tried the cheesecake, and true enough, it was really smooth, chocky and nice! This shall be a keeper for me!

A Free Saturday

I was like quite free for a couple of Saturdays since my last Saturdays attending workshops. Actually, it was good to attend workshops so that I don't have to think about what to bake. Since now I'm free from attending workshops, I was looking for recipes to do some baking.

Bread was first thing on my baking list since I've not been baking breads often. The last loaf I baked was rather good, so I intended to make it a weekly bake. I baked some Wholemeal Almond Buns with modification from my course recipe. As I woke up very early on Saturday morning, I finished my bread by 10am. Then proceed on to bake Walnut Moontarts as I still have some white lotus paste left from my previous mooncake making. I managed to finish by lunch time, then after lunch, I continued to bake a cake as I was trying out a recipe for my new workshop.


So, being free from attending workshops, is actually good for me too! I can continue to bake and improve my skills! :)

Lemon & Tomato Salmon

Since it was a public holiday on Monday, I decided to prepare dinner for the family. It's like once a while treat for them! Heehee... Usually my domestic helper will cook lunch and dinner, but on Monday, I took over the dinner. She can cook very good chinese food. After all these years, her cooking has improved a lot and I can trust her with any new recipes. For me, it's more western type of cooking, which involves baking. Mainly because, I trust myself more with my oven. :p


I read in some SHAPE magazine about Lemon & Garlic Salmon which seemed very easy to prepare and very healthy too! So I copied down the recipe in my handphone and tried to replicate the dish. I did this with some modification. I also baked some herbed potato wedges which was also a sold-out for that evening! Of course, salad was also made to make the meal complete!



Recipe for Lemon & Tomato Fish (modified)
(Makes for 5 adults)

Ingredients:
600g Salmon fish fillet
2 tbsp Lemon juice
1 clove Garlic finely diced
1 Onion thinly sliced
4 Tomatoes, unseeded and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Brown sugar
2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese and Mozzarella Cheese

Method:
1. Remove skin from fish.
2. Marinate fish with lemon juice, salt and pepper at least 1 hour before.
3. Place in a swallow oven proof dish.
4. Top with garlic, onion and tomatoes.
5. Sprinkle with sugar.
6. Pour ketchup over the fish.
7. Spread cornflakes evenly over the fish, followed by cheese.
8. Bake in oven at 180C for 30mins or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
9. Serve with green salad.


Bread Making

It's been quite a while, almost like four months since I baked bread loaf. I've decided to use my multi-grains (realising I still left a lot after making muesli bar) for my bread. So I had to find a recipe that won't taste weird with multi-grains, but at the same time, I didn't wanted to make continental breads. Finally, I decided to try HBS's Honey Whole Wheat Loaf. Besides adding wheat flour, I also added 40g of multi-grains to the ingredients and followed the rest of the ingredients exactly.


It really took a long time for the final proof. I was glad I let it proof for a long time before baking as the bread turned out to be really soft and nice. I was rather surprised to taste a hint of honey in the bread when the recipe called for only 1tbsp of honey! I really like it! It's been quite a while since I was successful in my bread making, well, make this another successful time then! :)